Use Your Words Wisely

The following is excerpted from The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion by Tim Challies.

While people have always communicated and have probably always wanted to communicate more, what is unique in our time is its sheer dominance. Our ability to communicate is unprecedented in scope, speed, and reach. It is now the dominant paradigm through which we live our lives.

Perhaps, though, amidst all of the chatter we have forgotten that we do not need to communicate all the time. Is it possible that constantly communicating with others is not always good, that it can result in problems even as it offers us amazing benefits?

We know … that our idols are often good things that want to become ultimate things in our lives. Communication with others is just this sort of good thing, a very good thing that can so easily become an ultimate thing – an idol in our hearts.

How can we tell if something has become an idol in our lives? One possible sign of idolatry is when we devote an inordinate amount of time and attention to something, when we feel less than complete without it.

When our words (written or spoken) serve an idol, they try to distract us from what matters most. They encourage us to focus on quantity over quality. Our communication begins to lack substance, and the constant flow of words keeps us from focusing our hearts and minds on the truth. The sheer quantity of words can dilute their power and harden our hearts to the Word of God.

But when words serve God, they draw our hearts to the things that are of greatest importance. Such words are full of meaning and life. They call us out of the shallows and into the depths of knowing God. Our technological advances in communication provide us with opportunities to use words in ways that will honor God, thoughtful words that speak with substance and truth and give life to people made in God’s image.

We live in an age in which words have become a cheap commodity, and much of our communication has become unbearably light, frustratingly anti-intellectual, and devoid of substance. But words still have power. Used wisely, they can draw people and lead them to what matters most. It is still and always the Word that God uses to call His people to Himself.